The Simple Things

I’m writing to you from outside. It doesn’t matter from where outside, it just matters that I am outside. It’s a bit drab because it’s been raining but the smell of wet grass is pleasurable. I boast about living where most vacation but the reality is I forget. I don’t want to forget. I like the way the sun stings my skin, it burns. I like how the stinging makes me long for the ocean and how near the shore always is. In recounting all things that make me happy I forget just being outside. The smell of outside, the way my lungs thank me for breathing deeply, the wind that destabilzes me. The smile that cannot be denied because the wind chose to carry me.

I stopped building sandcastles and learned how to swim. Once that was done I forgot how the sea held me. How some days the water caressed me and other days it slapped me, threw me to the floor right by the shore. That feeling these days no longer incites tears or fear but rather giggles. Total immersion feels like it heals as long as you wait to breathe. You loved being under, to then emerge to inhale needed air.

I like being outside! I do not run from the sun. I used to, as being darker was not preferred. Now, I enjoy the richness of my dark skin- it’s beautiful! I like how my fingers get stuck as I run my hands through my hair. How I have to tug gently to unravel the strands. I am bemused that through my hair I am a rebel when I’ve always been well behaved.

I am happy that I have seen more than my home. I see you and me touching culture, doing things that scare us and loving even when we do not understand. Seeing the beauty in each hue of each flower- reds, yellows, blues, purples. I like when it’s dark, when it is dark enough at night’s fall to see the stars twinkle and the moon illuminate the sky. It’s a choreographed dance that is always perfect from the first sighting of the sun till the darkness comes to finish the day. I saw and felt all this, outside.